My husband was in michigan this week and that was one of the flights he thought about taking on thursday night. He flies a lot and it just hit close to home. Clarence is not far from where we live. We are a little more out in the country. Big sigh of relief. When the news came on at 10pm they announced at the end of the broadcast that a plane had crashed by the airport, but they didn't know anything yet. By the time the 11pm news came on, it was not until after the weather that their news crews made it to the neighborhood and they announced it was a commercial plane. WIVB broadcast without commercial break until I went to bed at 2am. When my husband called to say he was alright i was so grateful. (wipes tears and sniffles) Fran, Could i have the blanket flower, please? BTW, DS#3 watered my keyboard once, its still a little iffy. We set it in from of the blower on the woodstove for a week. Just FYI those of you sowing in the keys LOL! Thank all of you for the prayers. Families here are esp. close knit and things like this are difficult for anyone. Praying for your FIL, too Nichol. Fleethart

IRISH CREAM CHEESECAKE 6 whole graham crackers 1/4 cup melted butter 24 oz cream cheese, softened 7 TBL sugar 1 TBL flour 2 eggs 6 TBL sour cream 1/3 cup Baileys Irish Cream 2 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup whipping cream 9 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped Chocolate curls, optional Process graham crackers in food processor until finely ground. Ad butter; process until mixed. Press over bottom of 9" springform pan. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 8 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Beat cream cheese & sugar in mixing bowl until smooth. Beat in flour & eggs 1 at a time. Blend in sour cream, Irish Cream & vanilla. Pour over crust. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 250°. Bake 40 minutes longer. Turn off oven. Let cheesecake stand in closed oven for 1 hour. Loosen cheesecake from side of pan; do not remove pan. Chill overnight. Bring cream to a simmer in heavy saucepan. Add semisweet chocolate. Heat over low heat until melted & smooth, stirring constantly. Cool to lukewarm. Place cake on rack placed on baking sheet. Remove side of pan. Pour chocolate glaze over top; spread over top & side with spatula. Chill until set. Remove to serving plat. Top w/chocolate curls, if using.

Thanks guy/gals! That pepper relish and the cantaloup sounds yummy! Here's what I have, now mind these are OLD recipes so they aren't written in cookbook format: Yellow cantaloupes or musk- Sugar melonsWater Select the large yellow variety of cantaloupe or the old-fashioned muskmelons when they are beginning to turn a little yellow in ripening. Peel the thin outer rind, and cut a very thin slice next the seeds; cut the sections in pieces one inch thick, and put them into a preserving pan with six pounds of sugar to ten pounds of fruit. Add one-half gallon of water, cover and boil until the melon becomes clear and transparent. Remove the cover and boil until the syrup is thick. Seal in jars. ====================================== Spiced Fruits: To eight pounds of fruit allow four pounds of sugar, one pint of good vinegar, one table-spoonful of ground cinnamon, one tablespoonful of ground allspice, one tablespoonful of ground ginger, one teaspoonful of ground mace, one teaspoonful of ground cloves, one tablespoonful of grated nutmeg and six crushed bay leaves; mix the spices, put them in four muslin bags and tie them loosely. Boil the sugar and the vinegar for five minutes, add the spices and the fruit and cook until the fruit is tender. Soft fruit must not remain long on the fire. Remove from the fire and cool. Next morning lift the fruit with a skimmer and put it into glass or stone jars. Boil the syrup, pour it over the fruit and let cool; do this for nine mornings. This recipe will answer for pears, peaches, apples, currants, apricots, watermelon rind, citron melon and cantaloupes. Rather than doing it for nine mornings, I would process it hot in the waterbath for whatever time your cookbook says to do the particular fruits, LOL! ====================================== Here's one that sounds more modern! CANTALOUPE OR MUSKMELON PRESERVES The melons should be ripe but firm. The rind is removed and the firm pulp is cut into pieces of desired size and shape. The prepared material is weighed and ~ pound of sugar is allowed for each pound of melon. The melon and sugar are packed in alternate layers and allowed to stand for 24 hours. At the end of this period the juice from one small lemon per pound of melon is added and the materials are set over a slow fire. Slow boiling is maintained until the syrup sheets or flakes from the stirring spoon. The hot preserve is filled into clean jars and is processed in the water bath for 2 or 3 minutes. Steph

We're having our traditional roast ham for Christmas and I'm serving the hash brown potato casserole made with cream of chicken soup and cheese and corn flake crumb topping (can't make any other kind or there is mutiny from DS - they've had this every year since they were children and since their Mom is gone, we will always make this casserole just this way - the 'kids' are all grown up now and all still make this when they host Christmas dinner :) I'm also making Glenda's pineapple casserole (first time for me) and roasted asparagus. We also always have a green salad and I'm making a couple of homemade dressings (that I don't always bother to do) and one of them will be creamy blue cheese, don't know about the others yet. Ken makes his family's Swedish meatballs too and this time I'm going to try this glaze for the ham, it sounds good. Posted by steelmagnolia2007 (My Page) on Thu, Dec 20, 07 at 21:25 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed 3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard 5 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar Score top of ham. Cook, uncovered, for about an hour and a half at 325. Then mix glaze ingredients and slather generously all over exposed portions of ham. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes, or until ham reaches 'safe' temperature, basting every 10 minutes. Mixing the pan juices with a little bit of glaze makes a fab gravy! Glenda's Baked Pineapple Casserole 1 (20-ounce) can pineapple chunks in juice 1/2 cup sugar 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted 1/2 cup crushed ritz crackers Drain pineapple, save 3 tablespoon of juice. Combine sugar and flour; add cheese, pineapple and pineapple juice. Mix well. Put in greased 8 x 8-inch baking dish. Mix crushed crackers and melted butter together; sprinkle over pineapple mixture. Bake for 30 minutes at 350*F (175*F) Serves 6 BLUE CHEESE DRESSING Posted by: MQmoi (My Page) on Tue, Sep 3, 02 at 19:47 This is delish. I've made it many times. Found it on Epicurious.com, it's from The Blue Room restaurant, Cambridge Mass. It has a creamy base, but you can simply fold in the Roquefort in chunks rather than crumbles. You may also want to increase the amount of cheese. 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 large shallot, minced 1 tablespoon Sherry wine vinegar 1 large garlic clove, minced 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1/3 cup crumbled Roquefort cheese 3 tablespoons whipping cream Whisk first 5 ingredients in small bowl to blend. Fold in Roquefort cheese and cream. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)